Hong Kong — Veteran British war correspondent Clare Hollingworth, who broke the news that the Second World War had started, died in Hong Kong on Tuesday aged 105. Hollingworth later reported from many of the 20th century’s troublespots, witnessing the horrors of war in Vietnam, Algeria, the Middle East, India and Pakistan, as well as the Cultural Revolution in China. But she is best remembered for her scoop on the Second World War in 1939, when she was just a rookie reporter. Aged 27 she broke the story of Germany’s invasion of Poland during her first week working as a journalist there for The Daily Telegraph, covering the worsening security situation in Europe. Using a borrowed car from a British diplomat to drive across the Poland-Germany border, she spotted hundreds of German tanks, armoured cars and field guns, all facing Poland and ready for action, when a hessian screen blocking the view blew to one side. Three days later, on September 1, Hollingworth called the British embass...
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